Bad BAD memories about Proair, which flew out of Detroit City Airport. Was very jazzed with their cheap fares to and from EWR, but WOW, did their service really stink.

In the 80's, there was New York Air, which flew DC-9's into the New York area (EWR and LGA). They were always a Continental entity, but as CO had such a bad rap, it was another entity altogether. They had "Nosh Bags", which were nothing more than an apple and a bagle, but very yummy nonetheless. I had such a great time with them, I booked my parents on them from DTW to BOS, with a connection in EWR. Unfortunately, though, the agent was so infatuated with her boyfriend (on a phonecall), she mismarked their bags, and the bags ended up in Newark. Took a day to get them up to BOS. They quickly became part of Continental, as the shuttle.

TWA international was a fun one too. As a kid, (11 years old), I was on a flight from Zurich to JFK. We had flown over to Europe on the very new 747, introduced just that year, and I was already spoiled. We flew from DTW to JFK on a 727 (I was thoroughly unimpressed), but that 747 was a SIGHT. On the way back it was a 707; being a *****y kid, I was unhappy to be on a narrowbody plane all the way to New York. Just as we cleared Ireland, the pilot came on and announced that we had to land, NOW, and we will be dumping fuel to expedite that. HOW COOL!!!!

Turns out it was a bomb threat. The flight originated out of Tel Aviv, and there were a number of Israeli dignitaries on board. We landed in Shannon, spent at least 6 hours there while the plane was inspected. After that, we reboarded the same plane (I would never do that now), and off to JFK. The cool thing that I remember is that the pilot announced that all cocktails (I was too young to partake) were FREE, have as much as you like, thanks for flying TWA, etc. Sorry for the delay. I opted for a few Cokes.

Since we were incredably late, we missed our connection to DTW. In those days, international calls were unheard of, so the people meeting us in DTW all went home. We ended up spending the night in a HoJO at JFK (my first offical time that I was allowed to stay up that late, saw Johnny Carson for the first time). We were allowed one phone call to the relatives in Ohio to tell them the reason for the delay.

The next day we were sent to LGA for a FIRST CLASS flight over to DTW. I asked my Dad "Hey, why didn't we fly 1st all of the time, this is so nice??". He chuckled, and tried to explain that 1st was a LOT more expensive. I didn't care, and on that one hour flight, we had some really yummy cheese omelletes. Good example of being spoiled at an early age. I still get *****y when I don't get upgraded.